Orální historie - Rozhovory s osobnostmi českého divadla

Studied music at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and dance theory at the Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) in Prague.
Starting in the second half of the 1940s, she was engaged with the Práce Theatre Cooperative (Karlín Theatre),
D 45, and the Vít Nejedlý Army Artists’ Ensemble in Prague. In the early 1950s,
she began to teach at AMU’s Dance Faculty, earning a professorship in 1982.

Her husband was the actor Vlastimil Brodský (1920–2002). She is the mother of musician, songwriter, artist, actor, and writer Marek Brodský (* 1959).

Studied theatre sciences at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU).
In 1959, he began working as a dramaturg at the State Travelling Theatre Company;
he was also a contributing editor for Divadlo (Theatre) magazine and the editor-in-chief of Divadelní noviny (Theatre News).
In 1970, he was briefly the artistic director of the Jaroslav Průcha Theatre in Kladno,
after which he spent two years as the director of the Kolín Regional Theatre.
In the 1980s, he was the dramaturg for drama productions at Prague’s National Theatre and Vinohrady Theatre.

In the mid-1960s, Císař began lecturing at DAMU, where he was made an associate professor in 1966.
He was the school’s dean in 1970–72, and was made a professor in 1985,
after which he headed the Department of Drama Directing and Dramaturgy and the Department of Theory and Criticism.

After receiving a degree in aesthetics and comparative literature from Charles University’s Faculty of Arts,
he studied theatre sciences at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU),
where he met his future wife Jarmila Hrubešová – who would later go on to be
the long-time head of the Theatre Institute’s library and documents department.
In 1952, after having completed his studies, he was sentenced for participating in an anti-government student group.
He did his military service with the army work brigades. He later worked as editor-in-chief at DILIA,
as a night watchman, in the Theatre Institute’s documents department, at the Office for the Study of the History of Czech Theatre,
in the National Theatre’s archives and at its PR department. In 1991, he was made the director of the National Theatre,
a function he held for two years.

His son Ondřej Černý (* 1962) is a theatre critic and translator, and was the director of the Theatre Institute in 1996–2007
and of the National Theatre in 2007–2012.

At the start of the war, he was attending the real gymnasium (secondary grammar school) in Slaný.
Three years later, he was interned at Terezín where, influenced by the “Kameradschaftsabend” theatre evenings,
he decided to become involved in theatre. Also at Terezín, he met his future wife Eva Langerová
(the niece of František Langer). He later passed through the Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen concentration camps as well.
After the war, he did his military service with the Vít Nejedlý Army Artists’ Ensemble.
He later acted with theatres in Slaný (1947–48), Písek (1948/49), České Budějovice (1950–55),
and Ostrava (Petr Bezruč Theatre, 1956–80; director 1961–66).
He also worked with the Ostrava television and radio studio and acted in many films and television programs.

She graduated in the field of directing from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague,
where she studied between 1956 and 1961. Towards the end of her studies, she was already working as a director for Czech Radio.
After completing her degree, Glancová was engaged by the National Theatre in Prague as a director’s assistant.
In 1962, she went to the East Bohemian Theatre in Pardubice, where she held the position of director for three years.
She then received an offer to collaborate with the Divadlo Za Branou (The Theatre Beyond the Gate),
which was subsequently shut down in 1972. She then worked for the Lyra Pragensis Theatre.
In 1990, the previously closed theatre was reopened as Divadlo Za branou II (The Theatre Beyond the Gate II),
where Glancová remained until she retired in 1993.

However, she continues to collaborate with a number of other theatres. She has also taught at the Higher School of Performing Arts in Prague.

Over the course of her career, she has directed more than seventy productions.

Emil Havlík graduated from the Smíchov Grammar School in 1946 and went on to study
at Charles University – initially Russian and Serbo-Croatian studies at the Faculty of Art,
later transferring to the Faculty of Education and majoring in Czech.
Emil’s relationship with the theatre started to develop during his childhood when his father was involved
in establishing the Puppet Theatre of the Smíchov I Sokol Unit’s Puppetry Section, whose activities Emil revived in 1993.
Havlík’s main engagement during his professional career was with the Central Puppet Theatre,
which Jan Malík founded in Prague in 1949. Here Emil remained active from the theatre’s earliest days in 1949
until his official retirement in 1987, although he continued collaborate with the theatre even after that.
Emil was also involved in educational activities at the Academy of Performing Arts.
He performed in more than fifty productions and also translated a number of plays and professional texts.

In 1948 Klosová began studying theatre sciences and literary criticism at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague,
but theatre sciences was soon moved to the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU),
where she worked as an assistant teacher after graduation. She was also the secretary
of the Working Group of Czech Theatre Historians. She helped found the theatre studies department
at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, whose mission was to write a History of Czech Theatre and a Dictionary of Czech Theatre.

She specialized in acting systems and in the history of Czech theatre in the 19th century.

Eva Kolárová decided to follow a literary career while still a student at the grammar school in Tábor.
She also enjoyed singing and won the national round of the Secondary School Games in 1947.
Eva started to study literary science at the Charles University Faculty of Arts in 1948,
where she met her future husband – the literary historian and translator Jaroslav Kolár.
Her second field of study was theatre science, which was transferred to the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in 1950.
Starting in 1966, she became a member of the professional staff and secretary of the Charles University Department
of Theatre Science where her colleagues included Jan Kopecký, Milan Lukeš, Dana Kalvodová, and František Černý.

Other achievements include her co-authorship of the book Sto let Národního divadla (One Hundred Years of the National Theatre).

Kovářík studied at a special secondary school for future teachers, but his “poor ideological profile”
forced him to work at the ČKD machine works before beginning his studies at Charles University’s Education Faculty.
In 1962, he helped found the Pretty Small Theatre in Litvínov, which focused on stage interpretations
of works by poets born in the 1920s and was inspired by Prague’s Semafor Theatre. The theatre was a success
at the Jiráskův Hronov and Wolkrův Prostějov festivals, and also appeared at Prague’s Viola Theatre.
The theatre ceased its activities in 1969. Kovářík also worked in the Ústí nad Labem offices of Czechoslovak Radio,
moderated the Porta folk festival, and gave emerging artists a chance through his show The Green Quill
(first live on stage and later on radio). He helped to popularize the work of Václav Hrabě.

Kronbauer graduated from the Secondary School of Industry in Prague. Originally a passionate amateur photographer,
in the 1970s he became the in-house photographer for the Czech Philharmonic. In 1985–2000,
he was employed as a photographer at the Theatre Institute in Prague.
He considers himself a student of leading Czech photographer and graphic artist Jaroslav Krejčí. Today,
he leads the Theatre Photography Workshop at the “Divadlo” (“Theatre”) festival in Pilsen.

He is the nephew of Jarmila Kronbauerová (1983–1968), an actress with the National Theatre in Prague.

Kröschlová began to study dance under the guidance of her mother Jarmila Kröschlová (1893–1983),
with whose dance troupe she performed in 1939–1949. She also took courses in kinetography,
historical dances, and teaching. In Prague, she worked with the Music Theatre,
the New Prague Madrigal Singers, the Jiří Srnec Black Light Theatre, and the La Fiamma ensemble.
As a choreographer, she has worked on more than 80 productions with many different theatres.
She taught at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU),
where she was made an associate professor in 1990. She was also a member
of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM) and is the long-time head of the Chorea Historica choral ensemble.

Křížková is a graduate of the Václav Hollar School of Art (1953–57), and later received a degree
in textile design from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (1957–60) and in scenography
from the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (1960–63), where she studied under professor František Tröster.
In 1963–92, she was a permanent member of the Příbram Municipal Theatre, and in the 1990s she worked for Czechoslovak Television.

Křížková has exhibited at four Prague Quadrennials and at many other exhibitions, including twice at the Salon of Scenography in Prague.

As a child, she attended the ballet school run by Anna Gromwellová-Muffová and Zdeňka Zabylová.
In 1945, she was accepted by the Dance Department of the State Conservatoire in Prague,
from which she graduated in 1949. She wanted to continue studying choreography,
but her entire class accepted a year-long engagement with the Zdeněk Nejedlý Theatre in Ústí nad Labem.
Machová stayed there until 1958, at which time she became a choreographer for the Silesian Theatre in Opava,
where she remained until 1963. She then held the same position at the Hudební divadlo v Karlíně
(Karlín Music Theatre) in Prague from 1963 to 1970. In 1977, she returned to Ústí nad Labem,
where she was the head of the ballet section from 1977 to 1988.

She has been involved in more than 150 productions as a dancer, librettist, choreographer, or director.

Mikeš studied Czech language and literature, Latin languages, and comparative literature
at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague, from which he graduated in 1951.
He worked freelance until 1992, when he began to lecture at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU),
where he was made an associated professor in 1997. He was the school’s dean in 1997–2000.
He became a professor in 1999, after which he headed the Department of Theatre Anthropology.

Eva Milichovská graduated from the Ohradní Grammar School in Prague. She did not pass the entrance examinations
for the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design and consequently started as a draughtsperson for Stavoprojekt.
The company soon recommended her for architectural school, in which she enrolled in 1952.
After four semesters, the enthusiastic attendee of DISK Theatre performances decided to try the entrance
interview for the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts, where, thanks to her architectural
experience and sense for space, she captured the attention of Professor František Tröster.
She graduated in 1959, but had already been given an engagement two years earlier by the Horácké Theatre in Jihlava.
In 1961, Joan Brehms offered her a job at the South Bohemian Theatre in České Budějovice.
Then Eva worked for a short time at the Municipal Theatre in Most before returning to Jihlava in 1969, where she remained until 1991.

She has over 200 stage and costumes designs to her name. In recent years, she has been devoting her time solely to figural painting.

Miška attended a business academy and was involved in theatre on an amateur level, including during his time
in Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. In 1945, he earned his first professional acting engagement
with the Kladno Municipal Regional Theatre, and he later appeared on stage in Prague as well:
Realistic Theatre, State Film Theatre, and the Prague Municipal Theatre, where he worked as a director
in 1965–84. He also appeared in numerous films. In the mid-1980s,
he left the country, working as a director primarily in Germany but also in Switzerland and France.

His wife was the actress Ludmila Píchová (1923–2009). Their daughter is the actress Michaela Mišková (* 1949),
and their granddaughter Debora Štolbová (* 1981) is also involved in acting.

Pokorný graduated from Charles University’s Faculty of Education (1956) and the Dance and Music Faculty of the Academy
of Performing Arts (1962). In 1961, he founded the Charles University Artists’ Ensemble,
a modern dance troupe of which he was the artistic director and choreographer.
He resurrected Taneční listy (Dance News), a newspaper originally banned by the communists after their
takeover in February 1948, and also helped found the Festival of Pantomime in Litvínov.
In 1968–71, he worked as a choreographer at Prague’s Semafor Theatre, and in 1971–93 he was the head
of ballet at the F. X. Šalda Theatre in Liberec. In addition, he headed Czechoslovak Television’s ballet ensemble
and taught at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (DAMU).

(born 6 November 1933 in Ostrava) is a theatrologist, journalist, and teacher.

She received a degree in art history and classical archaeology in 1956 from the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University,
where she went on to receive a doctorate in art history and theatre science in 1967. She became an associate professor
at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in 1996. After she arrived in Prague, she first worked at the Museum of Decorative Arts
and the National Heritage Institute. In 1959, she took on a position at the Theatre Institute as an expert staff
member of the Scenography Department and remained there until 1995.

She has lectured in Prague at the Faculty of Art of Charles University and the Theatre Faculty of the Academy
of Performing Arts, in Olomouc at Palacký University, and in Brno at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts.
As a historian and theoretician, she specialises primarily in the history of twentieth century scenography.
In the past, she was a member of the Czech OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) Centre.

She was married to the playwright, dramaturge, and actor Jaromír Ptáček (1925–2003).

He completed studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Łódź (1950),
and the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw (1967).
His first name is sometimes specified as Wilhelm, Witold, or Vilém.
In 1951, he accepted an engagement as an actor at the Polish Stage of the Těšín Theatre in Český Těšín;
from 1966 to 1989, he was also a director at this venue. Starting in 1986, until he retired in 1991,
he was also a member of the Czech Stage acting ensemble.
He has directed over eighty productions and acted in fifty.

Věra Říčařová-Vítková, a graduate of the Ceramics School in Bechyně, studied puppetry
at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague from 1955 to 1959.
In 1958, she was briefly engaged by the Radost Theatre in Brno. From 1959 to 1981,
Věra was with the East Bohemian Puppet Theatre in Hradec Králové, with only a brief interruption
when she went to the Kabaret Theatre in Pardubice. She was involved as an actress and designer in almost 40 productions.

Her life and artistic partner is František Vítek, whom she met when she was working in Brno. Their common path led to Hradec Králové.

Říhová originally studied musicology at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts, but she soon switched
to theatre sciences, which she completed along with art history. After graduation,
she worked as an editor at the Orbis publishing house in Prague. In 1956–86, she worked at the Office
for the Study of Czech Theatre – a division of the Institute for Czech Literature
at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague – as head of the working group for the Dictionary
of Czech and Slovak Theatre. Later, she was a member of the editorial team of the Dictionary
of National Theatre Artists and also worked as the office’s secretary.

She was also a member of the executive committee of IFTR (the International Federation for Theatre Research)
and a member of the steering committee of the International Institute for Theatre Studies in Venice.

Scherl studied aesthetics and musicology at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague,
receiving his doctorate in 1952. After graduation, he worked as an assistant in the aesthetics seminar,
where he held the position of secretary to the dean. Later, he worked as a freelance theatre critic
and collaborated with Divadlo (Theatre) magazine. From 1957 until his retirement in 1991,
he worked at the Office for the Study of Czech Theatre at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Czech Literature.

He is a member of the Thalia Germanica international association.

His wife is the theatre theorist and radio journalist Slávka Dolanská (* 1927).

Smutný studied music composition and conducting at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts.
After graduation, he became a répétiteur for vocal and opera studies. Two years later, in 1957,
he left for the National Theatre, where he worked as répétiteur and as assistant to the theatre’s conductor
and director until 1980. He also worked at the Czechoslovak State Song and Dance Ensemble and taught
at the People’s School of Art the Jan Neruda Gymnasium in Prague.

(born 29 August 1931 in Žalova u Prahy) is a theatre director, actor, composer, and artist

He graduated from the Higher School of Decorative Arts in Prague, and also completed piano studies at the State Conservatoire
as well as studies in stage design at the puppetry department of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU).
In 1959 and 1960, he started using the “black cabinet” technique for the productions of Skupina 7/7 (The 7/7 Ensemble),
which comprised graduates of DAMU’s puppetry department. In 1961, as a member of the Divadlo na Zábradlí (Theatre on the Balustrade),
he established the Černé divadlo (Black Light Theatre), which he renamed in 1992 to the Černé divadlo Jiřího Srnce
(Black Light Theatre Srnec). Most of his productions were introduced primarily abroad until the 1990s,
as they did not have their own stage in then-Czechoslovakia.
In addition, in 1986 Srnec founded the synthetic Imaginativ Theatre.
Srnec has more than fifty productions to his credit.

Šlezingrová began studying ballet as a five-year-old at the Ivo Váňa Psota school for ballet in Brno.
In 1939 she became a soloist at the Brno Municipal Theatre, and in 1945 she was made a soloist at the Opava Theatre,
but two years later she returned to Brno, where she was active with the State Theatre for the next 15 years.
From 1962 to 1975, she was a ballet soloist and choreographer at the Oldřich Stibor Theatre in Olomouc.

In 1964, he received a degree in Bohemian studies and musicology from the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University (FA MU).
He also studied composition and music theory at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno
from 1965 to 1970 and later studied experimental and electronic music. Since 1972, he has taught at the FF MU Department of Music,
where he was named an associate professor in 1988 and subsequently became a full professor in 1994.
In addition to his professional work, which focuses mainly on Leoš Janáček, he composes stage music
for theatre productions as well as chamber operas and musicals.
He is one of the founders of the Brno-based Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theatre).

After completing secondary school, Štěpán studied history at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts.
As a recent graduate, in 1958 he was given a position at the Regional Centre for Education in Ostrava.
After this, he worked at the Military History Institute and the Institute for Czech Literature’s S. K. Neumann Office.
He defended his dissertation in 1967. In November 1968, he decided to emigrate to the United Kingdom, although he returned soon
thereafter for family reasons. He was the head of the Documentations Department of the newly established Miroslav Kouřil
Scenographic Institute (1957–74), and later of Documentations Department at the Theatre Institute (1974–79),
which he left to work at the National Museum’s theatre department (1980–92).

At age 17, after completing a two-year program of economics, Šulc became a student (and later, business partner)
of Josef Skupa at the Spejbl and Hurvínek Theatre. He took over the task of controlling the Hurvínek character from
Mrs. Jiřina Skupová, eventually mastering the art of puppeteering and enriching the character with many new comic gags.
He also created several cabaret performances, for instance about Marcel Marceau or Louis Armstrong.

She received a degree in directing at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno in 1968.
Together with some of her fellow students, including Zdeněk Pospíšil, Petr Oslzlý, and Petr Scherhaufer,
she stood by the establishment of the Divadlo Husa na provázku (Goose on a String Theatre) in Brno in 1967,
where she was a director from 1972 to 2002.
In addition, in 1992 she founded the Studio Dům experimental theatre centre, which aimed to establish
a connection between theatre schools and original stage productions. A number of her former
students are currently theatre professionals.
In 2003, Tálská received the Czech Centre ASSITEJ (Association internationale du théâtre de l'enfance et de la jeunesse)
award for her continuous work to support the development of theatre for children and young people.
She has been involved in more than sixty productions as author or director.

Trávová started secondary school in 1936, but the Nuremberg race laws prevented her from graduating.
The same laws forced her to leave the Sokol athletic association. She was also a member of the Czechoslovak Scouts.
She eventually did a requalifying course in physical education, but from 1939 until the end of the Second World War
she was interned at Terezín concentration camp, where she worked in a woodworking shop. She also attended music and
dance performance, and after liberation she took a three-month secondary school equivalency course so she could
study history and physical education at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Education.
After graduating in 1950, she began to teach physical education at the university’s medical and education faculties,
and in 1953 she began teaching at the Academy of Performing Arts. She later joined the Department
of Physical Education at DAMU, where she worked until 1988.

Shortly after the Second World War, Veltruská’s diplomat father was sent to work in London.
Since he opposed the communist takeover in 1948, the family could not return home to Czechoslovakia.
She spent seven years at a religious boarding school, after which she studied English language and literature at university in London.
In 1959, she followed her husband, the aesthetician Jiří Veltruský, to Paris, where she found a new home.
She attended lectures on 17th-century French history at the Sorbonne and began to take an interest in comparing
medieval theatre in Bohemia, England, and France. With time, her interest narrowed to medieval liturgical theatre.

Her most important work was a study on the oldest Czech drama, Mastičkář,
which she published in 1985 (Jarmila F. Veltrusky: A Sacred Farce from Medieval Bohemia).

After completing secondary school in 1949, he began to study music and theatre sciences at Masaryk University’s Faculty of Arts in Brno,
but a year later the new department of opera directing was opened at the city’s Janáček Academy of Performing Arts (JAMU),
and so he went there instead. From 1954 to 1992, he worked at the opera of the Brno State Theatre.
In the 1990s, he taught at JAMU, where earned his professorship.

He gained fame for his direction of the operas of Leoš Janáček. Overall, he has directed more than 150 productions
at all operas in the Czech Republic, plus numerous foreign productions as well.
He has collaborated with artists František Tröster, Ladislav Vychodil, and Vojtěch Štolfa.

Vítek earned his trade certificate as a journeyman sculptor and woodcutter in 1948.
For health reasons, he completed only one course at Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design.
In 1953–55 he worked as a woodcutter at the Regional Puppet Theatre in Mariánské Lázně, and in 1955–58
he was employed at the Radost Theatre in Brno. In 1958, he helped found the “Drak” East Bohemian Puppet Theatre
in Hradec Králové, where he worked as puppet designer and scenographer until 1981.

His wife is the puppeteer Věra Vítková-Říčařová (* 1936), and the couple has been an inseparable team
in their professional and private lives since the late 1950s, when they met at Brno’s Radost Theatre.